program to address the violence and places women at the center of u.s. foreign policy for the first time in history. it supports measures to prevent violence,. text survivors, and brings perpetrators to justice. we have one of the three lead it drafters of this legislation. the bill was signed by the senate foreign relations committee and has a long way to go for passage. when you think about it, besides the incredible trauma violence is inflicting on our globe, the cost of global violence is huge. the cost of just partner violence, $6 billion per year. canada, $1 billion per year. the united kingdom, $23 billion per year. that is only one aspect. imagine if we took the time to record and tallied the global

cost of all types of violence against women. it would be astronomical. man, unless you feel left out, don't worry, you are included in this. that america we have the proud distinction of being one of the most violent places for boys. one in five boys will be molested before they are 13. these figures are low because many -- when sexually abused boys are not treated, society has to deal with them later, resulting in problems like crime and more sexual abuse. the suicide rate for boys who have been abused is 14 times higher than a non abused boy. drug use is 12-40 times greater. many experts believe that many boys are sexually abused. after a came out on the other side of my abuse, had to

dedicate my work. i completed a short film called flashcards, loosely based on my childhood. it won a international awards, it aired on international public television. the canadian mounties approached before the movie was even done and used it to train their officers. the movie is also in many parts of africa now used as a training tool. despite lengthy efforts with state senators, but has never been used as an educational tool in the united states. in august of 2007, i went to zimbabwe. it continues to be in the midst of a political crisis. robert mugabe, at one point a

freedom fighter, after 30 years in power has become a political dictator. he has written to the elections since the year 2000. zimbabwe, which has one of the highest aids rates in the world, and a large part of that epidemic has to do with the following. at there is a myth perpetuated by the traditional healers that raping a version will cure aids. part of my focus in zimbabwe is to document the work of the girl child network. in many ways, here she is in a developing country, on the verge of collapse, and they do a far better job. after a week of filming, 15 central intelligence officers arrested her and myself and our assistance, beginning in our deal that led us in the torture center of zimbabwe. the we spent three days in a co-

ed overcrowded prison. i was urinated on, i saw a man get tortured. and we were lucky. after three days we got out. my husband had hired un rights lawyers, the u.s. embassy was involved, and said you have to get out before the weekend or you will be raped or killed. the experience has forever changed me. every day i think about how lucky i am to be standing here. how will show you a clip of the movie, "tapestries of hope." young girls are being abused and have nowhere to turn. >> they think that the virgin's

blood it is so pure that it has healing power. >> the girls have been ostracized by the very society that advises men that raping virgins can cure hiv aids. >> the youngest are one day old. >> and fight she does. i knew i had to go to zimbabwe. but first day there we were stopped by the central intelligence agency. we had to be careful. he will stand by it silently while girls are harmed. -- he will not stand by silently while girls are harmed.

>> you don't have to be so hard on yourself >> they heard of a girl who needed to be rescued. i was going to go out, but we never made it. >> they will be deported. am i was told by the u.s. embassy if i did not get out by the weekend that i would be raped or killed. these actions devastate the lives of women around the globe. >> i tried to forget what has happened to me and face life. all i could say it is try to be someone in life and you can do it. >> when the day is darkest you can be a star when you fall hardest you find out how strong you are >> we must become foot soldiers

of change. >> have had little faith. >> thank you. [applause] >> i will leave you with one last quote from alice paul. she sounded an alarm that has great poignancy and significance today. she said, if we keep on this way, it will be celebrating the 1848 convention without being much further advanced in equal rights than we are. we should not be faced because this is written into the framework of our government. today we are 13 years past her

worst fears. i want to impress upon you one thing. add your voice to the chorus, sound by sound, note by note, as we rise up in a symphony of voices and say the quality. and then we also stop violence against women and children. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. i like to get you on my radio show to talk about these issues. if she could just get a percentage of the tea party media, we could probably change a lot in the world. now i like to welcome shelley back to the stage, along with

family. [applause] >> thank you very much. before i turn the microphone over, i get so excited having our past american future mayor, a really want to bring to the stage an incredible woman who helped me make that introduction, and i fail to do that. i want you to a challenge a woman from china to e-mail me and helped me at 3:00 in the morning, was always there, and i want her to stand because she deserves it. [applause] thank you for everything. forgive me for forgetting, girlfriend. you know i wanted you appear with me. now i will introduce my partner and this, the head of the department on the commission of women.

a woman i totally admire for everything she has done. she is also out on the san francisco food board -- san francisco school board, and we know how much we need her there. [applause] >> mayor brown said san francisco is the first and only city in the world to have an ordinance reflecting the elimination of all forms of discrimination as women. some of the women in this room or at the world conference. you heard it here, we want to bring the u.n. world conference on women to the san francisco bay area in 2015. [applause] i just have a few folks to recognize. former supervisor sophie

maxwell. we have the vice president, but commissioner, the fire commissioner, linda richardson, the director of treasure island, the former commissioner carol, the city administrator, amy brown, the first woman in that position. the city purchaser on the mayor's staff. if i miss you, please see me. we would be happy to announce she. thank you for joining us today. [applause] >> i would also like to thank

our table sponsors and all of our incredible volunteers. thank you for all of the hard work putting this together. [applause] now we're going to start our awards presentation. the organization of the year award goes to the family violence prevention fund, esther is the executive director, and the family violence prevention fund, a quick description, works to prevent violence within the home and the committee to help those whose lives have been devastated by violence, because everyone has the right to live free of violence. for more than three decades they have work to end violence against women and children around the world. please join me in welcoming her. she's the director of the family violence prevention fund. [applause] >> thank you so much for this wonderful honor.

this is an organizational award. those of you who are directors of organizations know that the only way that you could do the work is by having an extraordinary staff. on behalf of the family violence prevention fund and the staff in this room, debbie lee, who has changed the way health care providers help women who come into emergency rooms, health clinics, and is now making sure that middle school kids get to go to school to learn and have friendships and not be bullied and not to be raped. thank you, debbie lee. and my colleague, 18. -- lennie. lennie, who was with us in

beijing. because of your extraordinary work, violence against women as part of the beijing platform. because of your work in coalition with other groups around this country, over 15,000 battered and sexually abused in the court woman -- and the. women are here and free of their abusive spouses. thank you very much, lennie. and sarah. is your mom here? she is also related to someone on the school board. sarah, who runs and it works on signature products, coaching boys into men. i encourage you to look at that's not cool.com, which is about stopping dating violence.

this is an organizational award, i get to do this. and for rachel, who has been at the organization and who has been my partner as we build in the federal part of global clhu to challenge the notion that violence does not have to be part of the human experience. i thank you, rachel, and i think all of you for this award and for the work that we will do together in this city, and are presidio, to create a future without violence for our children and for all of us. thank you for this honor. [applause] >> we also have a certificate from mayor edwin lee, the member

of the board of supervisors -- >> good thing we have a new office building. >> also from nancy pelosi, and from our speaker pro tem. >> thank you very much. >> could we have the organization please stand so we can recognize all of the members who are here today? please stand. please stand. [applause] i just had a couple of other recognitions. we're joined by the small business commission. thank you for joining us.

>> next we have the committee advocate of the year award. an amazing woman, who formed sage, and years ago i was able to sit in on her classes. are you familiar with those? she is unbelievable. she would show up in a pink suit and talk to men who were basically arrested for soliciting women for sex and she would talk about as tv's -- std's and why this is wrong and then she transformed a talked- about why she was a particular prostitute. she would actually point at man and say you picked me up five years ago, remember? i was floored by this. the other thing she did, she said, how many of you have kids.

the metal to raise their hands. some would say i want you to look at the guy next to you and picture him raping your daughter. some of these men were in tears. she told me at that end, it is the men who were not in tears that we have to worry about. most of the men did not want to talk, especially in business jackets to had to go pick up their wives at the spot. she was an incredible woman. the advocate of the year award goes to another incredible woman. [applause] roma is a social justice activist on immigrant rights and women's rights. she directs the bay area homeless program and also teaches at the department of

health and education at san francisco state university. let's give another warm welcome to roma. >> thank you. thank you, everyone. i want to share one thing that is remarkable about today, in addition to what others have shared. i think it is absolutely inspiring that the woman's movement in 2011 in san francisco, at least, is sharing a sponsorship of policy-making endeavors and the arts. i am telling you, we have to codify and our values. we need a policy to do that. we don't just need a people's movement, we need to codify. the arts brings a heart, they

bring healing. there is not a person in here who has not been harmed or harmed themselves in some way. we have all lifived. the arts steel and inspire. -- the arts heal and inspire. i want it noted that all of us have to do this if we want to inspire our youth to keep on moving on. keep on moving on. thank you to all of you, the sponsors, the other binarhonore

and most especially i feel really blessed i am the first to be honored for this community activist board. norma was remarkable. i just want to say in the few minutes that i have what i think her message might be today. norma suffered from abuse from almost day one of her birth. until she was about 40 years old. she experienced child sexual abuse, bullying of all sorts, isolation, prison, sexual exploitation that we call prostitution, and in our

religious and secular beliefs we believe that people who have these experiences are undeserving people and are put in that category. our social services, our cultural values and honor those women who are deserving, and we do not want to invest our taxes or anything else on the undeserving. that idea is at least 2000 years old. we have a legacy to deal with. it should be shred from our psyche, and whenever you have to do it to do it, do it. it and what ever we have to do in building the women's movement, a people's movement for our brothers and sisters, help do your job of getting rid

of this cultural belief of the deserved and undeserved. it must die, even if it took us 2000 years to do it. i ask you to join all the women from this morning's workshop and today, as we have seen already spoken, that we make that commitment. normally understood this, -- norma understood this, and i think that is the central message. for those who have been harmed through sexual abuse and global exploitation, norma, threw her were feeling, not only named it but tried to resolve and helped liberate and free the women who were experiencing it. and she developed sage.

the proposition of sage is, at its core, those who suffer must feel -- must heal, and to heal we need to find each other and speak to each other as peers. and that empowerment comes through that process. and no social organization, no health plan, no school curriculum should omit the process of peer support and empowerment. that is what sage does. and from that experience, we can all than see others as peers and joined in partnerships locally

and globally with compassion, with a new idea, which is that we are all here to fill our lives, to be free, and the social policies and the culture that we want to live must be the pleasure of us all. i really feel very special that i get to say this in norma's projected voice. she left us in 2009 at the age of 58, much too early, but i know that the sage women who are here, the sage men who are here will foist this forever, and we ask you to join. thank you. [applause]

>> i also wanted to say that commissioner and i were on the health commission for, how many years, 12? and we were partners in helping to bring health the san francisco. so thank you very much, leanne. >> just a few more recognition sprint we're joined by current commissioner, signed a, -- sonya, as well as a representative from the office of nancy pelosi, the san francisco political committee. they do women's policy summit in september. for gin and harman, former

director of the human rights commission, and galena -- helena. thank you so much for joining us. >> our next award goes to the unsung heroine, carol ito. she is bed a passionate advocate for women of all levels of the community. she was one of the founding members of the national asian pacific women's movement in the late 1970's, which resulted in the development of the local bay area group, pacific asian american women. the have been running 30 years. she recently completed three terms as a san francisco airport commissioner. please join me in welcoming carol ito. [applause] >> thank you.

i am very humbled this afternoon to join all of you. i want to thank shelly's committee and everyone who made this happen. i am honored to share many of these honors. many of us have work together for the various causes and policy changes for this great city. i must say that there are many unsung heroines in this room, and my guests at table three are many of my own personal friends and supporters to keep me honest, keep the focus, and make it really very special and important to do what i do. i have got a lot of guidance and support from these women. for those of you who have not met them, please, after lunch, these are the women who make up a big part of my life. i think what is also important

is that we need to support each other and with each other up. but i would also like to acknowledge, a former khmer brown's daughter is still here, never publicly think your father. he appointed me to the airport commission 12 years ago, and at that time there were not a lot of women voices on the commission. we on the commission at that time decided we had a lot of good training ground as to how to work with the city and make policy changes. as many of you commissioners out there know, we don't get a lot of training how to behave, what our role is. we get ethics training, but beyond that, how people function and are effective on our local commission, it is kind of like being a parent. you don't get trained, and